A week into the bombardment of Gaza, I set up a WhatsApp group for my Palestinian family to confirm each morning they're all still alive. Fatin, a Hebrew/Arabic translator, lives in the Al-Burij camp, very close to the Israeli border, and she's the only one outside of Gaza City. From Istanbul, Abdullah and I watched on Al Jazeera as places with cherished memories in Gaza City were destroyed live on air. AdvertisementAdvertisementMy parents live in a five-story building in the middle of Gaza City that my father had built 40 years ago. She told me that Israel had announced that 1 million civilians in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, should evacuate within 24 hours.

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Persons: Ne'ama, I've, Abdullah, Siham, Yazmina, squinting, Maria, Ascia, Fatin, Tal Al, it's, Muhammad Ghanem, — Hussam, Hatem —, Hazem, we'd, Israel, —, Hazam's, Farah, Yasmeen, Sophia, Hammoud, he'd, Hanadi, Waleed Organizations: Hamas, Al, Israel Defense Forces Locations: Gaza, Gaza City, Europe, Jordan, Turkey, Istanbul, Israel, Jazeera, Al Jazeera, Al, Hawa, Gaza's, Siham